WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Operation Cross Country was coordinated among 500 federal, state and local law enforcement officials in 135 cities across the United States.
“Operation Cross Country, a nationwide law enforcement action that took place last week and focused on underage victims of prostitution, has concluded with the recovery of 149 sexually exploited children and the arrests of more than 150 pimps and other individuals,” the FBI said.
The US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has referred to the problem of sexually exploiting minors as an “epidemic.”
Estimates on the total number of underage children forced into prostitution in the United States vary widely from 100,000 to as many as 3 million, according to the Crimes Against Children Research Center.
